NEW YORK- Noted climate scientist Michael Oppenheimer, a principal author of a just-released Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report and a professor at Princeton and NYU Law visiting professor, said that further delay in reaching an international agreement to cut global greenhouse gas emissions would amount to a highly dangerous gamble. “The window for cost-effective action on climate change is closing fast,” Dr. Oppenheimer said. “Avoiding dangerous climate change requires us promptly to eliminate coal burning and eliminate use of all fossil fuels by the end of the century.”

The worldwide UN scientific body found that climate change caused by human activities is already occurring and causing widespread harms. It concluded that unchecked growth in greenhouse gas emissions will impose high risks of flooding of major cities, serious food and water shortages, human health harms, and species extinction as well as a threat of sudden and irreversible changes in the climate system.

The Guarini Center for Environmental, Energy and Land Use Law is a non-partisan think tank that advances market-oriented environmental and energy policies for an efficient and sustainable economy.
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For more information, please contact:
Danielle Spiegel-Feld, NYU School of Law – (212) 992-6146, Danielle.spiegel-feld@nyu.edu